Stars for a Millenium

The Wagon (a Yuku board) is hosting a 2 year SAL on this counted canvas piece.  It is intense but it also moves pretty fast.  

One of the reasons it is moving along fast is that I make myself finish stitch steps in 1 stitching session.  I do that because I do not know if I am interpreting the instructions correctly so I strive for consistency. 

That diagonal blue woven step required so many clippings and redoings!  I also had to add additional thread plies because too much canvas was showing through.  It may be a little too thickly muddled now, but at least the canvas is covered.  

If I were starting this again I would start it on a darker canvas.  

Intense but fast, so far.  I don't want to burn myself out on it so still being in the mood for canvas I hope to pick up either Pieces of 8 for the final 4 blocks or taking on Lahaina again.  We shall see which one wins the mood.

WIPocalypse # 5

This has been another crazy month...actually,  this might be the first sane month I have ever had for stitching since I haven't flitted about 20 projects.  I didn't start 20 new projects but stayed with 4 already started pieces.  The 3 challenges I joined this year have really helped me to focus.  

First up: Gayle Bicknell's Pieces of Eight.

Eight more octagons finished.  1 stalled for changes.  Eight more to go. 

I stalled on this last one because the colors listed in the instructions are not the colors that look pictured - but I know how misleading that can be given how out of whack my own pictures are which never photograph the cloth colors the way they actually look. 

I thought the dark green would work as it is a part of the multi color NN which shows up in a few blocks above it but I finally decided it looks too dark.  When I pick it up later in May I will clip out what's there to replace it with a lighter green.  From there, I may even be able to zip through the final 8 for another Wipocalypse finish...unless I get to another color decision.

Martina  Weber's Egypt Garden Mandala

I am thrilled about the progress on this one, too.  I had 2 vacation days which I spent mostly stitching.   Not the best picture but I was in a hurry as the camera battery was running down.

 I am finally out of the inner sections (except for a few stitches and beads here and there).  I am out on the golden sections with trees, pillars and other scenes.  

I can't believe I am seeing progress.  I think at one point it was hopeless to think I would ever get anything done on this.  Now I dare to think I might get it finished.  It gets more beautiful as it progresses.  Even family members are beginning to comment on it as it doesn't let look like a blue blob.

Nora Corbett: J Fairy

I wanted to work on something small for the instances where I didn't have much time to haul out a bigger project with a lot of components.  I thought this would fit the bill.  It didn't really.  One evening's work amounted to some over 1 flesh on her arm and shoulder.

For some reason, she wasn't the itch I wanted to scratch this month.  I think  I still wanted to work on Egypt but I just couldn't haul it all out.  I looked at some other small projects I had within reach but nothing screamed to me.   I switched to knitting some  more on another family snuggly afghan slims.

Laura J. Perin Lilac Collage

I had such a hard time putting this one down that I barely spent time with anything else.  I didn't want to happen what happened with Pieces of 8: I totally lost my momentum for progress on Po8 when I put it down for the challenge pieces. 

 I did some work for the next Wipocalypse report (a previous post) and hope to do some more.  I did very little on Blackbird Christmas which I think I forgot to report last month.  I did some time consuming work on the Egyptian Mandala - which can also be applied to Wipocalypse, I suppose.

But returning to the Lilac!  I can't believe it is finished.

There were  several discrepancies between the chart and the cover photo.  You have to look at both then decide which way you will go.  The good thing about projects like this is that there is a lot of fudge space.  I did clip out some areas, including the lilacs for assorted issues.  The chart came with a packet of beads which I did not put on the piece. 

I changed out the entire lilac area to restranded floss instead of all perle.  The threads fit together better.  I also added some more leafage to balance it out more in its rectangle  

I also tried to put the swiss dotted 504 in the back of the lilac but it looked too busy and I hated the ghost threads - which I could have masked in framing but I did not like the green measles look.  I tried some light patterning with a single floss thread.  I finally decided the lilacs can sit by themselves.  I added my initials and the year, lightly at the base of the lilacs.

What made this project work from the beginning is that I decided that as long as stray threads did not show through to the front that I didn't care what the back looked like.  This was the biggest reason I could work the NP on the lilacs.  I refused to put this project down for any other stitching until I slogged through those lilacs.  I knew if I ever put them down for long they would never get finished and the project would never be finished.  

Only after the lilacs were done did I let myself work on the really fun layered blocks.

So I finished Lilacs.  I started in on Lahaina Breezes as a reward.  This one should go even faster because it looks like larger scale abstract stitching even though it measures 10 by 10 to Lilac's 9 1/4 by 9 1/8.   I have only just begun it and I already encountered a discrepancy between chart and photo.

   It was fun working on this last night but I will put it down to get some progress going on the challenge pieces.

Laura J Perin Lilac Collage Failed Experiment

I have loved Perin designs for years.  I even collected a handful over the years.

The problem is that I don't like working on canvas.  I am not sure what it is about canvas that I don't like but I hope I get over it because converting the design to cloth just didn't work.

Here is the final clipping, the 5th start/restart  and 2 days of counting, recounting, frogging, picking and reworking  some of the adjacent rows to the center section.  I had also done more portions of the center lilacs 4 times before this picture to check over 1? over 2? back to 1? back to 2?  It must have been watching Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy during this which kept me calm.

In the past I was able to work some needlepoint patterns on cloth.  This wasn't one of them.  I finally gave up and found some websites which sold the listed ingredients.

While I was at it, I ordered a consolation chart from Laura J Perin's website .  I love so many of her designs.  I just hope I will overcome whatever I have against canvas because now I have one more piece in my want to start immediately  - or as soon as supplies get here - pile: Lahaina Breezes.  

I don't know if my stubbornness will get me to restart Lilac Collage or if I will just move on to the newest bright shiny in my collection, but whichever it is, I will keep you posted.